Carette of Sark

Carette of Sark

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Carette of Sark, by John Oxenham This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Carette of Sark
Author: John Oxenham
Release Date: September 6, 2005 [EBook #16666]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARETTE OF SARK ***

Produced by Steven Gibbs, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

CARETTE OF SARK
BY JOHN OXENHAM
AUTHOR OF "WHITE FIRE" "HEARTS IN EXILE" "BARBE OF GRAND BAYOU" "JOHN OF GERISAU" ETC.
WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS, FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF SARK, SPECIALLY TAKEN FOR THIS BOOK
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON MCMVII

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
GOD'S PRISONER RISING FORTUNES A PRINCESS OF VASCOVY BONDMAN FREE OUR LADY OF DELIVERANCE JOHN OF GERISAU UNDER THE IRON FLAIL BARBE OF GRAND BAYOU HEARTS IN EXILE JOSEPH SCORER A WEAVER OF WEBS WHITE FIRE THE GATE OF THE DESERT GIANT CIRCUMSTANCE PROFIT AND LOSS THE LONG ROAD

TO WILLIAM FREDERICK COLLINGS, ESQ. Seigneur of Sark
AND
JOHN LINWOOD PITTS, ESQ., F.S.A. (Normandy) Managing Director of the Guille-All��s Library, Guernsey
AND ALL THOSE GOOD FRIENDS IN THE ISLANDS WHO HAVE SHOWN SO GREAT AN INTEREST IN THIS BOOK I INSCRIBE THE SAME IN HEARTY RECOGNITION OF MANY KINDNESSES

FOREWORD
_Sercq is a small exclusive land where the forty farm holdings to-day are almost identical with those fixed by Helier de Carteret in the time of Queen Elizabeth; where feudal observances which date back to the time of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, are still the law of the land; and where family names and records in some cases run back unbroken for very many generations._
_To obviate any personal feeling, I desire to state that, to the best of my belief, no present inhabitant of Sercq is in any way connected with any of the principal characters named in this book._
_The name Carr�� is still an honoured one in the Island. It is pronounced Caury._
_The numbers on the map refer to the farms and tenants in the year 1800--the approximate date of the story. As this map has been specially compiled, and is, I believe, the only one of its kind in existence, it may be of interest to some to find at the end of this volume a list of the holdings and holders in Sercq about one hundred years ago._
* * * * *
_The photographs from which this book is illustrated were specially taken for me at considerable expenditure of time and trouble by various good friends in Sark and elsewhere. If, in one or two cases, we have permitted ourselves some little license in the adaptation of the present to the past, it is only for the purpose of presenting to the reader as nearly as possible what was in the writer's mind when working on the story._
* * * * *
_The map and list of the Forty Men of Sark and their properties in the year 1800 were compiled for me from the old Island records, by my friend Mr. W.A. Toplis, over twenty years resident in Sark, and for all the time and labour he expended upon them I here make most grateful acknowledgment._
* * * * *
_The length of the Coup��e depends upon--one's feelings, one's temperament, and the exact spots where it really begins and ends. To the nervous it seems endless, and some have found themselves unable to cross it under any conditions whatever. So high an authority as Ansted gives it as 600 feet, others say 300; the simple fact being that, unless one goes for the express methodic purpose of measuring it (which no one ever does), all thought, save that of wonder and admiration, is lost the moment one's foot falls upon it. The span from cliff to cliff is probably something over 300 feet, while, from the dip of the path in Sark to the clearing of the rise in Little Sark, it is probably twice as much._

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE HOW PAUL MARTEL FELL OUT WITH SERCQ 1
CHAPTER II
HOW RACHEL CARR�� WENT BACK TO HER FATHER 14
CHAPTER III
HOW TWO FOUGHT IN THE DARK 19
CHAPTER IV
HOW MARTEL RAISED THE CLAMEUR BUT FOUND NO RELIEF 24
CHAPTER V
HOW CARETTE AND I WERE GIRL AND BOY TOGETHER 31
CHAPTER VI
HOW CARETTE CAME BY HER GOLDEN BRIDGE 43
CHAPTER VII
HOW I SHOWED ONE THE WAY TO THE BOUTIQUES 53
CHAPTER VIII
HOW I WENT THE FIRST TIME TO BRECQHOU 65
CHAPTER IX
HOW WE BEGAN TO SPREAD OUR WINGS 77
CHAPTER X
HOW I BEARDED LIONS IN THEIR DENS 85
CHAPTER XI
HOW WE GREW, AND GROWING, GREW APART 94
CHAPTER XII
HOW AUNT JEANNE GAVE A PARTY 100
CHAPTER XIII
HOW WE RODE GRAY ROBIN 117
CHAPTER XIV
HOW YOUNG TORODE TOOK THE DEVIL OUT OF BLACK BOY 130
CHAPTER XV
HOW I FELT THE GOLDEN SPUR 142
CHAPTER